no strings
by coulbyangel
Summary: Morgana is upset after her breakup with Merlin and Arthur decides to help her out.


When Merlin breaks up with her, Morgana doesn't expect herself to turn into a living teenage cliché. In fact, she'd thought she'd be something a bit like Cordelia Chase, walking in with a hot new outfit and making Merlin come crying back to her. But when she realizes that a) Uther's starting to catch on to her extravagant use of his credit card and b) Merlin's too busy snogging Freya to even care about her, both of those plans fall through.

So, what else is there for a girl to do? She gets through about ten minutes of Clueless and a box of Uther's favorite (and most expensive) Irish chocolate before Arthur comes into and turns off the TV.

"Hey!" She yells, mouth half-full of chocolate. "I was watching that!"

Arthur rolls his eyes, placing his hands on his hips. "Well, obviously you were. And obviously, I don't care." He gives her a disgusted once-over. "What the hell's wrong with you? You look like shit."

Morgana huffs at him and tries to shoot him her best bitch look. "Nothing. Now move,  
so I can watch."

Arthur completely ignores her and instead narrows his eyes at her. She can feel him scanning her, and realizes too late what he's staring at: the red rings around her eyes.  
"Morgana... have you been crying?"

"No," Morgana answers immediately, feeling defensive. She glances downwards, suddenly finding the rich Oriental carpet to be very interesting. There's a long silence that stretches out between them, taut and unyielding. Finally, she hears a sigh from Arthur and the couch depresses as he reaches towards her to grab a chocolate from the box.

Morgana angrily jostles him. "Arthur! Those are mine!"

Arthur calmly extends his tongue, licking the excess chocolate from his fingers. "Oh please, Morgana, like you need any more of it." This cajoles a sneering laugh from Morgana, as she looks meaningfully at his waistline.

"Arthur darling, are you sure you aren't talking about yourself?" She's positively smirking now which would normally provoke some kind of witty insult from him, but he looks oddly content with letting her win this round. He isn't smiling, but is instead looking up at her with a softness that makes her want to dissolve into him. Morgana pulls her knees up to her chest and lowers her eyes away from him. "What?" She asks self-consciously.

"I made you smile."

"Yeah, well don't get used to it." She means it to come out defensive and angry (because she deserves to be angry about Merlin breaking up with her, goddammit), but somehow Arthur manages to make her feel better about even something as world-ending as this.

Arthur laughs, then sobers up as he assumes a facial expression that is somewhere in the spectrum of uncomfortable and righteous anger. "Morgana," he starts off, looking uneasy. "You know, Merlin's my best mate and all, and really, I told you that this was going to end badly in the first place, but if you want, I could-"

Morgana stops his idiotic attempt to play big brother by cutting him off herself. "Oh shut up Arthur. You know I'm not the kind of girl that needs a big, strong man to look after her. Besides, Merlin's so scrawny that beating him up would just destroy him."

"You think I'm big and strong?" Arthur smiles at her with that disgusting smirk that makes her wish she'd never opened her mouth in the first place.

"That is definitely not what I said; I said that-"

"That I was a big strong man, Morgana." Arthur flexes his muscles, admiring the golden tan he'd acquired from months of cross-country training and football. "I mean, I always knew you had feelings for me, but I never realized it was this serious."

Morgana tries to think of a witty retort but she's too pissed off at Merlin to think of a reply to Arthur, so she just turns on the TV with the remote. "Shut up and watch Clueless with me." Arthur willingly complies in a traditionally annoying Arthurian manner by flopping down on the couch and stealing the box of chocolates from her and her blanket.

"Filmeinonwhad'shappenin," Arthur demands, his mouth already filled with the imported chocolate. Morgana just hushes him with a finger to his mouth and snuggling against his form for protection against the cold.

"You know 'Gana," Arthur says halfway through the movie, his voice muffled by the fact that his head is resting on top of her hair. "This Cher girl is a lot like you."  
"Well-dressed and beautiful?"

"No, spoiled and manipulative."

Morgana shrugs her shoulders. "I consider that a compliment."

"Of course you would."

She scoffs in return and elbows him in the stomach. "Oh please, at least I'm not the real-life replica of Josh. Josh's slobbiness, horrible sense of fashion, terrible sense of humor- you've really got him down to a tee."

Arthur ends up taking offense to this and pushes her off him. "Hey! Take that back!" Morgana giggles and launches a pillow from her side of the couch at him. He ducks under the projectile and uses his arms to propel himself forward to tackle her. His maneuver works and Arthur lifts his arms victoriously.

"And Arthur Pendragon wins aga-" Before he can finish his sentence, Morgana uses his lowered guard to push upwards in a last-ditch attempt to free herself. Surprisingly, it works. When she bends down to shove his body down the floor, he's wearing a slightly bemused look like he might not mind getting beaten by her. Which is weird, but then again, it is Arthur. She pins his wrists to the ground and straddles his body.

"Looks like I win instead," she grins, out of breath from the effort of having to lift him off of her. She waits for a denial but Arthur doesn't say anything for a while and that's when she realizes that he's out of breath too and that the entire lower portion of his body seems to be pushing upwards of its own accord. She also notices that Arthur's not struggling anymore and he's staring up at her in breathless anticipation, like he's waiting for her to make her next move.

"What?" Morgana asks, suddenly cognizant of the fact that she's only clad in one of Arthur's old t-shirts and her pajama shorts. There's something electric here, sparkling, and Morgana can feel Arthur's skin hot under the thin layer of clothing separating them.  
There's a slight pause before Arthur uses one arm to grip the back of her head and the other to pull her down towards him. She feels his lips connect with hers for a moment, and his mouth is sweet and warm and familiar somehow. "Arthur," she whispers, receding, because this is happening too fast and she feels like she still has a sign on her body that reads 'Property of Merlin'. "We can't."

"Come on, Morgana." He tilts towards her to kiss her cheek. "Think of this like your free pass. Everyone gets one after a breakup like this one." Arthur's mouth moves on to her neck and Morgana feels like she's on fire. "I can be your rebound. No pressure, just-" He kisses her collarbone and she can actually feel her body betray her and rut against him impatiently. Arthur laughs. "It's just you and me doing things we should probably never tell Uther." His hand moves downwards and under the shirt that Morgana had stolen off of him ages ago. One hand sweeps her rib cage and she closes her eyes as his other hand brushes her lips. "Are you scared?"

There's something in his voice that hints at a challenge and Morgana has never been one to pass up a challenge. She leans in to recapture his lips and circles her hips against his body. She can feel him humming under her fingertips and the vibrations his mouth makes against hers when he moans; somehow, she can't remember it ever being this good with Merlin. "I'm. Not. Scared." Morgana rocks against him with every word and kisses along his neck before returning to his lips.

He breaks away for a moment to run his hands over the breadth of her body. "Knew you'd want to be on top," he murmurs in her ear and Morgana can't help but laugh at that.  
She lets him pull the shirt over her head and topple her over so he's the one straddling her instead.

Her legs hook around him and she lets herself fall into him.


End file.
